Things Fall Apart
by Cheshie
Summary: A bet made in the middle of the night leads both Sirius and James on year long expeditions in attempts to get those certain someones to date them. HestiaxSirius JamesxLily RemusxMarlene
1. Snowfall

The night was growing weary, and daybreak was approaching at a rapid pace. The candles flickered warmly within a Gryffindor dormitory, withered so that they were barely anything more than pools of melted wax that flickered and waved with pale light. Four boys had not gone to sleep yet. Four boys that each sat in their own beds, blankets drawn to their chins in an effort to protect their bare feet along with the rest of their bodies from the cold that seeped in through every crack in the stone walls, pressured in by the drifts of snowflakes that fluttered outside.

"Come on Paddy!" One of the boys exclaimed, drawing his knees to his chin as a wide smile spread across his handsomely narrow face. After a moment's pause he drug his fingers through the insatiably messy hair that topped his crown. The pale hazel eyes of James Potter peered at the other three boys from behind square spectacles, especially at the boy in the bed beside his, who was smirking at him, "I could definitely get Evans to go on a date with me!" He exclaimed.

"And shag you?" The boy who James was speaking too grinned mischievously at his friend, who was managing to look as though he were trying to think it over, "Face it Prongs! She'd sooner touch a slug than you!" The young man, who had shaggy, pitch black hair that fell to frame his tanned face full of handsome features and pale grey eyes with thick, girlish eye lashes in an extravagant manner.

"That's not true!" James exclaimed, only to be interrupted by a boy with straw-like brown hair and large, pale, amber eyes interrupted from across the room where he had been leaning against his headboard, a book held only inched from his freckled nose.

"Actually James, Sirius has a point. She has rejected you for the last three years, what makes you think this year will be any different?" Remus Lupin didn't even bother to take his eyes off the pages of the book he was reading as he stated this in a calm and collected manner, though earning a glare from James.

"I, on the other hand," Sirius continued, placing a hand to his collarbone in a conceited manner, "Could date and successfully shag any girl in this school."

"No you couldn't!" James exclaimed, frowning at his friend, "Are you telling me you'd like to bring a first year up here?" He asked, blinking in fact innocence at his friend, who faked retching sounds and motions.

"No! I mean girls our age!" Sirius replied, grinning in a sheep-dog kind of way at his best friend.

"Still." James replied, pushing his glasses further up on the crooked bridge of his nose, "You probably couldn't get a Slytherin to date you. Shag you maybe, but I'm pretty sure none of them would risk being seen in public with you."

Sirius looked down at his hands, his friend had a point. Or did he? Sirius had the kind of charm, and the kind of looks that created the opportunities for him to grace any girl to the point where he could get her to do anything.

"I'll bet you." James continued, mischievousness sparking behind his glasses, "That I'll get a date with Lily by the end of the year, and you won't have been able to get even one Slytherin girl to go to Hogsmeade with you."

Sirius perked slightly at the word 'bet'. Sirius thrived on competition, and his friend knew it, "You're on! The stakes?" He quirked an eyebrow, silently hoping for nothing that involved pink hair, as their last bet had.

James tapped his chin thoughtfully for a moment before grinning wildly, "The loser has to, at the end of the year feast, announce, to the entire castle, their boundless love for…Professor McGonagall!"

This earned a chuckle from Remus, who was apparently listening intently to their conversation, as he always did, "You two…" He mumbled, turning a page in his book with a slight smirk.

"You're on!" Sirius leaned over the gap between his bed and James', shaking the other boys hand, "Now help me think of some Slytherins."

"There's Alecto Carrows." James replied, settling into a laying position as he removed his glasses, placing them on his bedside table. Sirius continued to lean against his headboard, silently mouthing everything he knew about Alecto to himself.

"Next." He replied, shaking his head. Alecto was small and pale, with stringy hair and beady eyes. He would rather attempt on one of the decent looking Slytherins.

"Katherine Rodgers?" Remus piped up from the other side of the room, glancing over at the two of them, "The blonde one."

Sirius shrugged, closing his eyes and picturing the chatty blonde in his mind. Chatty…yuck. Talk was cheap and Sirius preferred for his girls' mouths to be working on something other than words. Particularly against his mouth.

"Hestia Jones." James piped up, eyes shooting open in triumph.

Sirius nodded. Hestia Jones was good looking, A shapely girl coming from a myriad of ethnicities, most prominent being her Indian descent. With long black hair and thickly lashed deer-like eyes…And though he perceived her as a bit of a bitch, he wouldn't have any problems staring at her for whatever length of time he had to.

"Okay then. By the end of the year you'll have gotten Lily Evans to date you, and I'll have gotten Hestia Jones to date and shag me." Sirius replied. An outsider may have thought that the odds were stacked in James' favor. But Lily Evans was a fortress; James could barely speak to her without having to fear for the safety of his genitals.

Sirius smiled contentedly, shifting into a sleeping position, on his back and staring at the ceiling as the candles extinguished themselves. He could hear the steady breathing of Remus and Peter; both must be sleeping. He could tell James was awake though; probably pondering the same things he was.

How did a Gryffindor go about asking a Slytherin out?


	2. Why yes Lily

The morning was long since there, the sun having risen to almost its highest point in the sky as their eyelids finally cracked the silent messenger that was consciousness; the day was new. A Saturday half over already that was simply waiting for the four friends to frolic across the grounds in the newly laid blanket of snow from the previous night. They needed to have their fun before the snow melted.

"Wake-up Prongs!" Sirius shook the shoulders of his best mate, grinning wildly from underneath the black fringe that had been thrust into his eyes by the knit hat he had pulled messily over his head. Sirius, unlike his friends, was a morning person, and already he was dressed for a snowball fight. His long black cloak was wrapped about his shoulders, gold and scarlet scarf wrapped tightly about his neck. His cheeks were flushed with the excitement.

"Why yes Lily, it is over six inches long." James mumbled in his sleep, turning over onto his back, one arm above his head as he mumbled something else incoherently. Sirius drew away in disgust before making a sound of discontentment through his nose. It was pointless to try and wake Remus or Peter without James' help.

He was going solo he supposed.

A few moments later Sirius had scrambled through the Gryffindor common room and through the porthole that led into the main castle, accessible by all students, not only those from the house of the lion.

A trapdoor and a hidden passage later Sirius found himself in the Great Hall, drawing a crumpled piece of parchment from his pocket, unfolding it with great care, as though the blank face of it held many secrets only he could read.

If James was going to sleep in, Sirius was going to get a head start.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good." He whispered, tapping the end of his darkly colored wand against the parchment, grinning with boyish excitement as links of ink spider-webbed from the tip of his wand. Once the map was completed, with little labeled black dots scurrying around, Sirius drew it closer to his face, seeking for a dot labeled 'Hestia Jones'.

His lips curved into a charming grin as he spotted her; right outside. Perfect. If he used his hands and feet, Sirius wouldn't have enough fingers and toes to count the number of times he'd gotten a girl he'd never spoken to before to agree to a Hogsmeade weekend with him the morning after a snowstorm.

Hestia Jones was outside. Of course she was; who in the world wouldn't be outside on a glorious day like the one that lay out before her. The snow sparkled brilliantly in the blinding sunlight as she held up a hand that was deeply tanned on the back, but softly colored in the palm to shade her eyes.

"Look Kitty!" Hestia smiled, looping an arm around the elbow of the girl beside her in a sisterly manner, pointing across the grounds, where several deer had trotted out from the dense foliage of the Black Forest, there velvety noses snuffling through the snow.

"I see! I see!" The blonde replied, giggling madly and leaning slightly against the shorter Hestia, her curly locks mingling within Hestia's black ones for a brief moment as her icy eyes locked on the deer for a brief moment, "But can't you find anything better to look at?" She asked, her eyes scanning the grounds, "Like a cute boy?"

Hestia rolled her eyes, "You know very well that everyone is back in the common room." She informed her best friend, Katherine Rodgers, also known as Kitty, with a pointed glance and a rolled of the eyes.

"Which is where we should be!" Kitty replied, flustered slightly as she tugged on Hestia's arm, "Come on Tin-Tin! You know Rabastan is completely in love with you! If you don't move in for the kill soon, he'll move on!" Katherine had a one-track mind that revolved around boys. And although Hestia loved her friend dearly she couldn't help but feel frustrated.

"You go ahead." Hestia replied, feigning sadness as she removed Kitty's arm from her own and smiled at her friend, "I'm going to stay here and enjoy the snow."

"Suit yourself." Kitty replied with a shrug, turning to head back into the castle.

Hestia rolled her eyes once again, turning around and flopping onto the ground, hearing the soft crunch of snow beneath her as she lay, spread eagle, on the ground, her waist length waves fluttering about for a moment before settling, her usually side-swept bangs falling over her right eye.

Quite suddenly she heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps in the snow. She instantly grew nervous as these footsteps landed, one on either side of her head.

"So…it's Tin-Tin, right?"

Sirius had wiped the Marauder's map blank and folded it up once more, slipping it into his pocket and heading out through the oaken front doors of the castle to blink rapidly in the sudden sunlight.

Once he had grown used to the light, increased by the reflective properties of the snow, he became intent on his mission. Sirius thrived on competition. And he was definitely not going to declare his love for the transfiguration teacher at the end of the year.

And according to the map, his target was somewhere out here.

Sirius had reached a couple of feet away from Hestia, hearing her conversation with Rodgers, who he remembered passing off as too chatty the night before. And flighty too, apparently, for she left Hestia alone outside after only a few moments. Sirius grinned; that was useful. Hestia was now alone. And even better, she was lying down.

God was on his side this morning.

"So…it's Tin-Tin, right?" He asked sarcastically, placing his feet on either side of her head and looking down at her, smiling prettily as she looked back up at him, a confused kind of look on her adorably flushed face.

But the adorably cute Hestia faded almost instantly as she obviously recognized him.

"Shove off Black."

Ah, sweet rejection. And so early in the morning.

"What? No 'Hello Sirius'?" He asked, bending into a squat as Hestia sat up, giving him a cold glare. Several snowflakes clung to her back and hair.

"No." She replied simply, pulling her legs into an Indian style sitting position and pulling her hair over her right shoulder and brushing the snow out of it without looking at him, "It's a little too early in the morning to have to deal with you and your shampoo-switching, hair-color-changing schemes, 'kay?"

"Aw Tin-Tin, still sore about that?" Sirius smirked, reaching out to brush his fingers against her cheek, "I was young, thoughtless, reckless." He rested his bottom on the ground, leaning in closer to her ear, voice dropping, "I think its time we got past that, got to know each other as adults."

He paused, watching her face carefully. Hestia was rather…free with her emotions. If he managed to piss her off, he wanted a warning. He'd need to protect himself.

And retain his ability to have children.

But she continued forward with her blank stare, running her fingers through her hair for a few absent moments before smiling gently, "That's great Sirius!" She replied, beaming towards him, wrapping a slender arm around his neck, her hand snaking upwards to entangle his hair in her fingers. Instantly his instincts told him something was off.

But her expression was so pleasant.

"I knew you'd agree." Sirius replied, wrapping his arm around her slim shoulders. This was far easier than he had expected it to be.

"Yeah, and you know what I always love to do with my friends?" Hestia replied, still sweet as syrup, "Have a good snow cone." In a swift motion she then used the grip she had already taken on the back of Sirius' skull to push his head forward; face first into the snow before him. She did it smoothly; the wiry muscles in her arm proving to be too much for any resistance a befuddled Sirius could try to put up, bent as uncomfortably at the waist as he was.

But she only held his face in the snow for a few seconds, for which Sirius was grateful. And he straightened up, gasping for breath, face raw with cold and snow clinging to his hair, just in time to watch a pair of gorgeous legs walking back towards the castle.

Sirius let out a low growl, thoughts of the bet he had made with James fleeing his mind for the moment as he wiped his face with his scarf. If Hestia Jones wanted war, she'd get war.

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**Authors Notes….**

Yeah…so…second chapter.

Hoorah!

The next chapter will probably have some James and Lily. Or maybe the chapter after that. The next chapter could just be the Marauders, who knows? I don't.

I hope you like the story thus far, I haven't written fanfiction in so long.

Reviews are good. Especially if you're nice to me xD


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